History:
Founded as Lied Der Zeit GmbH on August 12th 1946 by Ernst Busch.
On April 1st 1953 the company was put under state control and renamed to VEB Lied Der Zeit.
On March 18th 1955 finally renamed to VEB Deutsche Schallplatten Berlin.
In 1990 it became Deutsche Schallplatten GmbH Berlin.
Sold to BMG National Berlin in 1993/94.

VEB Deutsche Schallplatten Berlin (including predecessor and successor companies) owned 2 pressing plants. One in Ehrenfriedersdorf (1947 - 1958) and one in Potsdam-Babelsberg (1947 - 1991).
Potsdam-Babelsberg was the only vinyl pressing plant in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). All vinyl releases pressed in the GDR were produced in this plant.
The production in Potsdam-Babelsberg ended in autumn 1991. In 1992 the machines were selled or scrapped and the facilities demolished.

1956: first vinyl was pressed (only Singles and EP)
1961: last shellac was pressed
1962/63: first vinyl LP was pressed (all GDR vinyl releases before 1956(Single, EP), 1962/63(LP) were produced by Supraphon)
In the mid 70ies a new building was constructed for more production capacity and transition to full automatic production using Toolex Alpha presses.
1986: first Direct Metal Mastered (DMM) vinyl was produced

How to identify vinyl:

1963 - 1971

1963 - 1967 the catalog number and the label matrix number are stamped in vinyl runouts.
1963 - 1971 only the catalog number are stamped in vinyl runouts.
Examples:
560002 A 604003-1 A5W - X
825415-1S F9W - X

After that, the three digit combination indicates the date and probably a symbol for the vinyl mastering engineer.
The first letter stands for the month of manufacturing, the number for the last digit of the year.(lacquer cut, pressing can be later).
(A - M) I was not used, probably because of confusion with J and 1
A = January, B = February, C = March, D = April, E = May, F = June, G = July, H = August, J = September, K = October, L = November, M = December
Examples:
A5 = January 1965
F9 = June 1969

The last digit of the combination is a letter and indicates probably a symbol for the vinyl mastering engineer.
Known letters are: W, S, G and GR.

The letters after that indicates probably technical details of mastering.
They can be seperated from the date/engineer combination with a - or a 0.
Known digit combinations are: N, M, R, S, X(often turned to the side), STR, SDX, STA, SK, KU, U, RU, G.

There are often additional, numbers, letters or faintly inscribed "geometric" marks. These are likely added during plating or pressing.
The matrix number is machine stamped (there can be certain exceptions).
The actual release date can be the same year of manufacture or later. It cannot be earlier than the year it was manufactured though.
Do not derive a release year from the manufacturing date code alone.
For releases from March 1955 up to June 1990 identified by these schemes you can add a "Manufactured by" without any numbers to LCCN field.
For earlier and later releases use the matching predecessor or successor company.